Donald Trump Is Fueling an Explosion of New Lawsuits

The president is facing a torrent of legal challenges as attorneys general race to block his executive orders in court.

The incredible volume of lawsuits currently facing Donald Trump is not surprising. Before he was president, Trump was involved in more than 3,500 legal actions over the course of his career in real estate and entertainment, featuring an expansive taxonomy of cases ranging from exotic personal defamation settlements to real-estate suits worth millions. Even so, the number of court challenges Trump has provoked since taking office is remarkable. And his legal headaches appear to be getting worse, not better, as time goes on.

On Wednesday, the White House was hit with three major legal setbacks to its immigration agenda. First, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson indefinitely extended his injunction against Trump’s executive order banning immigration from six Muslim-majority countries. Watson, who originally blocked enforcement of Trump’s ban earlier this month on the grounds that it violated the U.S. Constitution by discriminating against Muslims, wrote Wednesday that “The court will not crawl into a corner, pull the shutters closed, and pretend it has not seen what it has.” Around the same time, the city of Seattle also filed suit against the administration, alleging that the White House’s threats to cut off federal funding from so-called “sanctuary cities” violates the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, which protects states’ rights.

Trump’s most recent executive order, rolling back President Barack Obama’s plan to restrict carbon emissions, didn’t even last a full day before encountering its first legal challenge. On Wednesday, several environmental groups sued the administration, asking a federal court to block Trump’s order lifting Obama’s moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, a coalition of 16 states and the District of Columbia are reportedly standing by, ready to challenge any effort by the White House to abandon Obama-era commitments to environmental law.

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The explosion of new lawsuits is the most obvious indicator that the Washington establishment that Trump promised to smash is fighting back. Just as state attorneys general derailed President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, an army of state Democratic prosecutors are in the process of filing motions to halt the Trump administration’s political agenda in its tracks. They are also using the legal system to undercut and expose Trump personally. Already, a number of state lawmakers are exploring the possibility of passing laws to compel Trump to release his tax returns in order to get on the ballot in 2020. Such a maneuver would almost certainly invite a challenge in court, but Democrats may seek out the confrontation.

While the Trump administration has already proved itself vulnerable to legal challenges, Trump himself is seeking to dismiss any personal lawsuits against him while he is in office. As The Washington Postreports, a lawyer for Trump wrote in a legal filing this week that allegations that he sexually harassed a former Apprentice contestant should be dismissed because the president should be immune from any civil litigation not filed in federal court. (Summer Zervos recently sued Trump in New York state court, accusing him of defaming her when he publicly dismissed her as a “phony” and other women who have claimed he sexually assaulted them as “liars.”) A separate lawsuit from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, which alleges that Trump is violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign governments at his hotels and businesses, is expected to be dismissed for lack of standing.

Even if Trump is successful, however, he is unlikely to escape the long history of litigation that continues to hang over his presidency. U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel has yet to rule on whether to accept an agreement that would allow Trump to settle two class actions and a civil lawsuit over Trump University for $25 million. Two former Trump U students, who have accused the president of fraud, have objected to the terms of the agreement, arguing that they should be allowed to sue Trump individually.

Other lawsuits could have even more far-reaching consequences for the president. Earlier this month, two Washington, D.C., restaurateurs sued Trump for unfair business practices, arguing that the Trump Organization has an unfair competitive advantage due to its executive being the president of the United States, attracting potential customers who might hope to gain favor by spending money at his hotels and restaurants. (Trump Organization attorney Alan Garten called the lawsuit “a wild publicity stunt completely lacking in legal merit.”)

The incredible volume of lawsuits currently facing Donald Trump is not surprising. Before he was president, Trump was involved in more than 3,500 legal actions over the course of his career in real estate and entertainment, featuring an expansive taxonomy of cases ranging from exotic personal defamation settlements to real-estate suits worth millions. Even so, the number of court challenges Trump has provoked since taking office is remarkable. And his legal headaches appear to be getting worse, not better, as time goes on.